This contains a big list of changes and bug fixes. Among the bigger things, we have added a new game mode: Challenge! For it we have added 18 new maps of varying size and difficulty. We have also added a new survival map, and updated some of the ctp and vs maps. Burntcustard also supplied us with a revamped version of the jet fuel dungeon!

For a long time we have been feeling that Cobalt has been lacking good transitional singleplayer gameplay component after tutorial. DM & CTP are more aimed towards playing with friends, and while Survival is fun for the hardcore player, it doesn’t offer a sense of completion nor any significant feeling of progress. This is where challenge mode now comes in. It offers maps in a wide range of difficulty where you can actually complete a map, as well as offering a wider range challenges and goals than just surviving. For us this is a very important component in making Cobalt a more complete game, and once we get the adventure component ready too, we feel that we will have a much more satisfactory sense of progress offered.

Hit the jump for the full change log!

Change Log

Alterations:

Ninjas have had their weapon arm switched, also ninjas can now be equipped with backshell and energy shield.

Added initialDelay to pickups

Increased rail scout bullet speed

New Actors

Now possible to assign tints to actors spawns.

New Challenge game mode.

Highscores for survival and challenge.

Added a bunch of Challenge Sets each containing a string of maps!

Map list fades to show that it continues.

Auto aim now considers tile targets even if there are other targets too.

Railgun prices adjusted downwards.

Snow, ice and icicles!

Changed the way activated physics are handled in the map editor. Now you can activate and simulate physics while in the editor, and then pause them. And all the things that were previously “magically” activated, are now just activated by default.

You can now attach physical tiles to each other in a hierarchy creating composited activated physical tiles.

Plasma striker increased max ammo

Plasma pistol increased max ammo

Plasma guns have generally had their speeds and ranges tweaked.

change plasma to dissipate charge less first, and more later.

Reduced handling sway penalty for all rail weapons

Increased rate of fire for rail defender and revolver

Increased reload speed for rail cannon and rail prototype and burst and screamer and revolver

Increased effect of burst and screamed extended magazine

Increased the effects of the motor for rail revolver and defender and vanquisher

Matter cannon support is more powerful, lessens recoils and increases rate of fire

Plasma cannon and striker now shoot multiple projectiles in an arc.

Added a combo system that gives time bonuses in challenge and volt bonuses in survival

Ai actors now have a small ai-feedback icon which designates the general state of the ai.

It is now much easier to push physical stuff.

Opengl is now default, add -directx to commandline to force directx.

Added a value to summoners called noOffspringSpeedBoost which makes the summoner start the next wave faster if all of its offspring are dead. This multiplier is 1 for birds nests and shroom summoners, but 10 for the booth summoner and 2 for the factory.

Ninjas have had their weapon arm switched, also ninjas can now be equipped with backshell and energy shield. This is part of the process of letting more actors use the generic equipment system.

Added initialDelay to pickups

Increased rail scout bullet speed

New Actor: Felishroom

Now possible to assign tints to actors spawns.

New Challenge game mode.

Highscores for survival and challenge.

Added 4 Challenge Sets totaling 18 new maps

Added 1 new Survival map: Desert Wind

Map list fades to show that it continues.

Auto aim now considers tile targets even if there are other targets too.

Railgun prices adjusted downwards.

Snow, ice and icicles!

Added a bunch more tiles to the map editor!

Changed the way activated physics are handled in the map editor. Now you can activate and simulate physics while in the editor, and then pause them. And all the things that were previously “magically” activated, are now just activated by default.

You can now attach physical tiles to each other in a hierarchy creating composited activated physical tiles.

You can now make tiles destructible from the right click menu of tiles, and then set their health.

Plasma striker increased max ammo

Plasma pistol increased max ammo

Plasma guns have generally had their speeds and ranges tweaked.

change plasma to dissipate charge less first, and more later.

Reduced handling sway penalty for all rail weapons

Increased rate of fire for rail defender and revolver

Increased reload speed for rail cannon and rail prototype and burst and screamer and revolver

Increased effect of burst and screamed extended magazine

Increased the effects of the motor for rail revolver and defender and vanquisher

Matter cannon support is more powerful, lessens recoils and increases rate of fire

Matter shots are now able to first destroy a protection piece and then continue to hurt the target if enough remaining damage is left in the shot.

Plasma cannon and striker now shoot multiple projectiles in an arc.

Added a combo system that gives time bonuses in challenge and volt bonuses in survival

Ai actors now have a small ai-feedback icon which designates the general state of the ai.

It is now much easier to push physical stuff.

Pushing or shoting a physical box, and it destroying an enemy will give you a kill

Landing hard on another enemy or a destructible tile will do damage!

Jump kick now works better on the way down when hitting a surface

Opengl is now default, Uncheck the checkbox in options to use directx!

Added a value to summoners called noOffspringSpeedBoost which makes the summoner start the next wave faster if all of its offspring are dead. This multiplier is 1 for birds nests and shroom summoners, but 10 for the booth summoner and 2 for the factory.

Opening doors now makes sound that can give you away.

Sneaking while opening a door will cause you to open it slowly making less sound

You can now configure where cobalt saves its user data: make a “paths” file into AppData/Roaming/Cobalt and write: $DOCUMENTS$ “your/documents/path” into it

Bug-Fixes:

Shield belt discharge now only affects enemies

Fixed actors being killable by heat and cold while being “invulnerable”

Reworked tile destruction code which seems to have removed a horrible stutter that was present before.

Plug was dropped when switching to more powerful weapons on pickup.

Lots of small fixes and tweaks to the editor

Plugs would sometimes disappear visually, when bouncing or periodically in the station

PROBLEM!
Everytime I finish a challange the game crashes and I have to Close it. :’(
I run win8, but I does’nt have truble With any other games (Im not intersested in some nerd telling me that win8 sucks, I use it and will use it).

Hmm, the game crashed on the Matter level in challenge mode when i stepped on a glowy thing and something fired a missile. The missile hit something, which it destroyed and then the game crashed xD take a look maybe?

Game crashed on safest gate, on the right side of the map pressing the switch that drops a block on the turret, and when entering the room with the motion detector and the fire jet. This was using directx, not sure if it happens with opengl.

Wow, another solid update, you guys are great!
I’m still dying to play adventure mode, but Challenge mode is definitely nice for now.. I’ve also been considering checking out the editor when I have some time.. been awhile since I’ve found a game worth mapping for.

Screenshot of the error mentioned earlier: http://imgur.com/RC8SK
I had time to mess with it, and it happens on both directx and opengl. This is also the second computer the error has occurred on, both running windows 7. It will happen right when the motion detector moves on screen. Also noticed that it looks like 2 errors in one and makes the game screen go black. The screenshot for the second error is just a black screen.

Yeah, although the challende mode looks cool, and works for a while, I keep getting crashes, mostly when killing an enemy (in fact this happens in every gamemode). I think it may have something to do with that, although occasionally its ok. E.g. on Research facility, when i pop out to the first section, i shoot the mushroomy fellow, a combo name appears and the game crashes.
The only maps it hasnt crashed on are the snow slope challenge maps. And they have next to no enemies.
Also, liking the new controller button support for instant firing. Definately gonna try out some new controller layouts however, please could you allow us to ‘create preset’ for the controllers? I’d like to create more controller mappings for my ps3 controller, but there are only 2 USB presets i can edit. :/
cheers
also, relating back to my previous question, I need to check whether or not we are allowed to place ads on our gameplay videos, for monetisation purposes. Some developers have a big problem with it *ahem* Microsoft *ahem* and I don’t want to get in trouble for doing it you see xD

Just played Research Facility for a bit and got some annoying bugs:
* The Reinforcement Teleport only teleports the player, not the items or enemies.
* Predators don’t have any weapons.
* Killing Air Bombs shows you an error message (something about sfx).

Hey guys, i didn’t even checked the new challenge gamemode, and already found 2 bugs, one is when i try to change the color blind mode, the screen fill with errors, and when i Alt + TAB the game, it crashes :/

Hey guys, i didn’t even tested the new challenge gamemode, and already found 2 bugs, one is when i try to change the color blind mode, the screen get filled with errors, and another is when i Alt + Tab, the game crashes :/

Lunamaniac, with all do respect looking through the comments didn’t help my situation in any way shape or form T_T. All that I could see is add -directx to the command line, how about instead of saying to do that you provide something on how to teach one to do so! That “OpenGL” Problem also does not help at all, I have installed OpenGL and the OpenGL.dll into the Cobalt folder inside of the Program Files(x86) > Oxeye Games > Cobalt

The comments above did not help so please can someone offer some REAL help?

Sure the highscore system is fun and helps you remember the scores of your best battles but could we remove the random commentator and cheering crowd please. I liked the game better when it was just Metalface MK-1. Who are all these new characters? Some of the cant even roll! Also I am getting crashes a lot more frequently and keep losing my progress. The combo system is great for other games but in cobalt it just seems useless. The game used to be realistic in that you got loot for killing enemies and the converted it into money. Now money seems to appear out of thin air just for shooting two enemies one after the other. The phrases for the combos are meaningless and seem to be generated randomly. The are just a distraction. It looks to me like cobalt is trying to hard to be like other games. Some of the challenges are fun but the should have more action. In the ice map I just ran and jumped and the didnt seem to be any skill required. The box interaction you have added just gets in the way. Altogether I am not happy with this update and am going to stay at 115.